Live broadcast: Why The Huffington Post and Boston.com are getting into streaming media

Can a news site become a TV network? Or a radio station? Or if it can’t become one, can it at least grow to include one?

These aren’t theoretical questions, as Monday saw the launch of HuffPost Live, the new streaming TV-style video network from The Huffington Post, and RadioBDC, an alternative streaming radio station from Boston.com, the webbier side of The Boston Globe.

The launch of two media-jumping online ventures is likely a coincidence — though getting clear of the Olympics was probably a motivator for each — but they share many commonalities and the same goals. On their first day, both gave early indications of what they see as their strategy for success. Both Boston.com and The Huffington Post want to use digital distribution to offer something like a traditional broadcast product, but at a much lower cost than what starting a TV network or radio station ran pre-Internet. They both also want a shot at a new channel of advertising dollars to complement the display-heavy advertising they rely on with their main products. In order for both to work they’ll need to find, maintain, and grow an audience and advertisers. On launch day, HuffPost Live counted Cadillac and Verizon as their “founding partners” for the network. On RadioBDC, launch advertisers include Miller/Coors, Anheuser Busch, and Comcast, a spokeswoman told me.

HuffPost Live, the latest spinoff of Arianna Huffington’s media empire, is an attempt at merging live TV with the expediency and interconnectedness of the web — to get the engagement promised by second-screen visions of television watching by building for the web from the start. HuffPost Live promises 12 hours of live weekday programming that combines hosted segments and audience contributions. “With HuffPost Live, you’re invited to be part of a different kind of conversation, whoever you are, wherever you are,” Arianna herself said in the network’s opening minutes.

But while the medium may be shifting, a lot of the content looked familiar. On day one, HuffPost Live had many of the familiar trappings of cable news: a well appointed studio, handsome hosts, and various treatments on the day’s news. But instead of Wolf Blitzer barking at reporters and pundits in the Situation Room, HuffPost Live relied on Google Hangouts. Monday’s first segment, a roundtable on Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate, featured a diverse cast of contributors live from their bedrooms/guest rooms/home offices. As novel as that was, the guests still fit into familiar archetypes: a conservative, a liberal, a knowledgeable reporter, and an everyman. That seems to be the model for HuffPost Live, as a segment later in the day on home foreclosures featured Huffington, the head of a mortgage-resolution organization, actor John Cusack (!), and a California man struggling to keep his home.

Of course, HuffPost isn’t the only one investing in live video. The advertising dollars are typically better than in traditional web display advertising; as Raju Nasrietti of The Wall Street Journal told us in June: “We are sold out. There is no shortage of demand to generate more video views.”

HuffPost Live wants to differentiate itself from other online video in terms of its content and its “live-ness.” The segments are like taking a dive into different HuffPost verticals — politics one minute, entertainment the next, technology later. (No sideboob yet.) But what sets it apart is the audience experience: The interface features a video player on the left, a comment stream on the right, and a big red “Join This Segment” button. A module above the video player lets the audience keep tabs on what stories and segments are coming down the pike, like the left rail on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Boston.com’s move into radio

The strategy at Boston.com’s RadioBDC also seems to borrow a lot from its terrestrial peers. The streaming station is an ambitious project for Boston.com, which scooped up the on-air talent from Boston’s WFNX shortly after the station’s frequency was purchased by Clear Channel. As far as new ventures go, RadioBDC will stick closely to the traditional radio format, broadcasting 24 hours a day, with DJs on air from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. At noon Monday, on-air host Julie Kramer kicked-off the launch with an appropriately titled show, “Lunch at Your Desk,” and it sounded a lot like you’d expect an alternative radio station to sound.

With no terrestrial signal, that desktop crowd, along with the mobile crowd, will be RadioBDC’s main audience. They’ve already launched apps for iPhone and Android, but the power of Boston.com promotion will likely be key. The site is always among the most visited regional news sites with over 6 million uniques a month. RadioBDC has its own page under the Boston.com umbrella, but it also receives prime billing on Boston.com’s homepage, with a banner ad and button to launch the radio player as well as a widget near the top of the page.

By default, RadioBDC pops out into a separate window, making it meant for hanging out in the background during the work day. If you’re the type of person that wants to hear Elvis Costello, Weezer, or R.E.M while you work, you can now hear the music you love while clicking through Red Sox news or updates on the Massachusetts senate race. For Boston.com, that potentially means exposing the audience to double the ads, on the site as well as on the radio stream. Lisa DeSisto, general manager of Boston.com, said over email that “streaming spots are just one component of the marketing packages which include digital assets, event sponsorships, social media tie-ins, and promotions.”

HuffPost Live also seems designed for the specific purpose of keeping the audience around, either to keep tabs on what’s being talked about in comments or to contribute to an upcoming story. HuffPost also wouldn’t mind if you kept it open in a tab all day and popped in from time to time.

While they share a launch date, RadioBDC and HuffPost Live operate at different scales: RadioBDC has a handful of people on staff, HuffPost Live hired around 100 people for the launch. Success will look different for the two entities. But they’re both counting on a similar audience: the bored-at-work crowd, desk jockeys looking for something other than an Excel spreadsheet to pay attention to. Considering how much time we spend tethered to our computers this strategy makes a lot of sense. Individually our stray, off-task web surfing may not amount to much, but HuffPost and Boston.com are hoping that, collectively, it adds up to many millions of hours. TV and radio originally brought the news and music live into people’s living rooms. Now HuffPost and Boston.com want to bring news and music live to your computer, tablet, or phone during the day, probably at work. Think of it as the earbud audience.

Hmmm…how can you write a piece this lengthy about expansion into online video and not point out the much higher CPM rates that video gets relative to traditional internet posts?

The primary motivator is the collapse of internet CPMs (40 cents over at mega-targeted Facebook) relative to the $10 CPMs that traditional video typically gets.

Of course,

1) The disparity has been, and remains, rather *stupid* – yep, it has made a *lot* of sense to underbid for the media that is actually directly measurable and capable of direct response (internet) in favor of the sample-measured media incapable of direct response (TV).

Personally, I attribute it to traditional ad agency kickbacks to media buyers.

Well, that, and a near infinite supply of internet ad-space versus the artificially (thanks, DC!) restricted supply of TV spectrum.

2) But Zsa Zsa over at PuffHo is mistaken if she thinks that the road to riches lies in online video – for long. (Of course, AOL thought Patch would pencil out too…)

Online video isn’t like the politically-gamed television dear to ZZ’s heart – there is no artificial restriction on supply and therefore online video CPMs will be driven far down in price just like traditional internet CPMs.

Actually, ZZ’s competition beat *her* to the punch – Glenn Beck has had his video network for a *year* – and he is getting hundreds of thousands of paid subscriptions.

I wonder if PuffHo’s celeb-driven model can sustain *that*.

Mike Gravino

While I wish HuffPost Live the best in their start-up I am not enamored with the format. They are attempting to bring the social aspects of their site into what is a linear format, television. If they can make it work great, but it is not television. My research has shown that the work-day viewer wants the news on in the background and does not want to be part of it. Those viewers which want to interact with the news during the workday have the time to do so but are not usually in a workplace, but at home. Will be interesting to see this format develop over time.

benito_a

They both would do well by studying DemocracyNow.org’s hybrid of radio, internet, video broadcast. Amy Goodman and co have that format down. You have an hour-long, well produced show that you can break into segments and viewers can pick daily what they want to watch, whether live or pre-recorded that day. People are attracted to personalities and well packaged stories… 12 hours of live, hit and miss coverage is a typical, AOL heavy-handed play similar to Patch. With AOL’s resources they should be able to produce 4-6 one-hour live shows that are well produced… break them up and package into viewable segments.

I’m at my desk and I want to view what I want, when I can get to it… the people they want participating will not have the time or willingness to participate the way they’re anticipating.

If you’re lucky enough to have the right deep-pocketed owner buy your paper and steady it, you’ve won the lottery. If you’re in a town whose paper is owned by the better chains, or committed local ownership, your loss will probably be mitigated. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.